Angels on Campus

SUMMARY

It's nighttime at Whitley College and Professor Fairgate is busy teaching a group of over-the-hill college "kids" English. After class, lovebirds Jen and Richard argue about going away on a trip together; she doesn't want to go because it's rush week, and he's jealous of her crush on the professor. Jen is then stalked through the dark, suddenly-abandoned campus grounds, chloroformed and kidnapped.

As it turns out, Whitley College is Tiffany's old alma mater, and what's worse is that Jen is only the latest in a string of disappearing co-eds who all happen to be members of Kappa Omega Psi sorority...Tiff's former house! Charlie randomly theorizes that the missing girls must be part of a white slavery ring operating out of the university and instructs Kris to audit Dr. Fairgate's class. Tiffany will be staying at the cursed Kappa Omega Psi sorority house and Kelly will "work the case from the outside” (do nothing).

Tiff reunites with her beloved housemother Ms. Kay - who jettisoned in from the 80s - and gathers a bit of preliminary information on the missing girls. It seems the only tie is that both girls had crushes on Professor Fairgate. The Kappa sisters' fawning over former house president Tiffany is interrupted when the lights are suddenly cut off and fire crackers are all a'rattle in the street outside, courtesy of rival sorority Pi Nu. Only Tiffany is wise enough to go outside and turn the power back on while the others cower in terror. Somebody recognizes one of the pranksters as Steve, brother to sorority pledge Nikki.

The next day Nikki storms onto the football field to inform her brother that his little stunt cost her her Kappa membership. Meanwhile, the two kidnapped girls are shown drugged and unconscious, being held by two henchmen and FAIRGATE! He informs the others that "the sheikh has upped his order," meaning a third girl will have to be kidnapped. (Guess who?)

Bosley goes undercover at the Whitley library as Zach Preston, a former student. He meets oversexed librarian Wilhelmina Campbell (but he can call her Willy), explaining that he's an author researching for a western novel. There he secrets information to nearby bookworm Tiffany - it seems that some more coeds also vanished from another university where Professor Fairgate lectured.

Jen's shaggy boyfriend, Richard, is cleared of suspicion after a chat with Tiffany, and he informs her of Fairgate's way with the lady students. Tiffany targets the Professor next, and he tries to make a date with her even after she asks a series of suspicious, probing questions concerning his tendency to teach at colleges where girls disappear. The cad also grants permission for "exceptional audit" Kris to sit in on one of his classes (which we'll never see, hear about, or learn from).

The Kappas to teach the Pi Nu's a lesson by beating them in a volleyball game. While celebrating, Tiffany is accosted by overconfident jock Steve, who brazenly squeezes her around the middle and tells her she's old. She promptly flips and drops him on the volleyball field amid a crowd of laughing onlookers.

Tiffany: "I like men, not boys."

Left alone in the locker room, the lights again are cut, and Tiffany is stalked and shot at with a dart gun by one of Dr. Fairgate's henchmen and - drumroll - MS. KAY!

Kelly remembers she's in this episode and finally reappears with Bosley on the football field, posing as football scouts (by holding a stopwatch), to cross-examine and insult Steve. They tell him that although he's a good player, his bad attitude will hurt his chances of being drafted. While that interview goes nowhere, it's Kris' turn to give Fairgate the old college try, and has no trouble inviting herself to his place for a drink.

On their way off campus, Fairgate chastises Ms. Kay for failing to snatch Tiffany, but promises that they will be "together again" once the job is over. Ms. Kay knows he's full of it, but is in too deep not to go along with his plan.

Kris arrives at the Professor's pad for a sexy tryst of wine and smalltalk. Just as he's about to make a move, they're interrupted by one of the Professor's henchmen, who's come to inform him that Tiffany Welles is not a reporter like she had claimed. This really doesn't matter, because they're still going to kidnap her anyway.

Alone on a nature walk in the Kappa gardens, Tiffany is stalked by suspicious-looking male footsteps - turns out it's only Steve, who's combed his hair and come to apologize for being a jerk. False alarm... followed immediately by a true alarm! Tiff is chloroformed by an actual bad guy, needlessly chaperoned by Ms. Kay lurking in the bushes.

When Tiffany fails to show for a meeting, Bosley and Kelly head for the sorority house to stand around and listen to the Kappa sisters fret. Kris calls to inform them that she's tailing Fairgate toward the hostage zone.

A groggy Tiffany wakes up tied to a chair, and is shocked to find her esteemed Ms. Kay involved. After giving her a piece of her mind, Tiff frees herself and jumps her ex-house mother, using her as a projectile to bowl over a henchman. When Fairgate and Henchman #2 arrive and turn the tables on Tiffany, she manages to re-re-turn the tables on them by throwing a telephone and kicking the Professor in the face. The others arrive and pose smugly with their revolvers as if they'd been any help at all.

FILMING LOCATIONS

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CURIOSITIES

• Ms. Kay says about the missing girls, "We're just praying that there's a logical explanation." Um, how sympathetic? Finding out that they're kidnapped or murdered is just as logical an explanation as finding out that they're on vacation.

• In what seems like a weekly occurrence in Season 4, an Angel risks blowing everyone's covers for the sake of a stupid joke - Tiffany can't help but turn to make little faces and comments at Bosley's interaction with the librarian.

• When the lights go out during the Kappa house meeting, the fully grown adult sorority sisters all violently overreact. The same girls overreact again when they win the volleyball game against Pi Nu, acting as if they had never played a game of competition in their long, long lives.

• Were the Pi Nu pranksters aiming to keep their identity secret at all? If so, that girl in the getaway car bellowing "NICE GOING, STEVE," while they're still parked right there, is an idiot. Why does Steve believe that setting off firecrackers on their rivals' porch would result in them respecting the Pi Nu's more? Oh well, only one sorority can be known for its intellect.

• Lori, when describing the rivalry between the Kappas and Pi Nu, says “the beauties, meaning us, vs. the beasts, meaning them.” Wow, pretty bitchy comment coming from a sorority who considers the humble and shy Tiffany a role model, she would have never said something like that. In fact, when Lori later makes the whole sorority chant "Beat the beasts!" notice Tiffany is not participating.

• A boom shadow is visible on the wall when Bosley's asking the librarian out for a drink.

• If Tiffany's goal is to STOP the Kappa vs. Pi Nu feud, why is her plan to beat them at volleyball? Isn't one-upping them only asking for further retaliation?

• Who's making those weird dolphin noises in excitement at winning the volleyball game?

• Tiffany changes her clothes and does her hair in the locker room faster than a spinning Diana Prince turns into Wonder Woman. And apparently she left her clothes in that dressing stall during the volleyball game, because she went in there with only a towel. Guess the Kappas are a very trustworthy lot.

• Employing henchmen means not having to do your own dirty work. Why does Ms. Kay accompany them to all the kidnap attempts?

• For all his Casanova reputation, Professor Fairgate has a pretty sorry bachelor pad. Guess something about that sparse, rickety-looking bookcase really puts girls in the mood.

• Gary Collins begins the episode being called Dr. Fairgate and ends it being called Professor Fairgate. No diploma or graduate school is seen or mentioned, so for all we know he could be called GED Fairgate.

• If all they needed was a third girl, any girl, why did the bad guys have to try to kidnap Tiffany, who they know is exceptionally smart and resourceful? Why not nab any other of the Kappa sisters who are all dumb as rocks?

BAD GUYS BEAT DOWN

GROSS KISSES NARROWLY AVOIDED

SHOTS FIRED AT TIFFANY

SHOTS FIRED BY ANGELS

DAYS TO SOLVE CASE (?)

ANGELS CHLOROFORMED

TURTLENECKS

CHARACTER DEATHS

ACTION

Not a lot going on this episode until the last ten minutes, but, what action there is is all given to Tiffany and it's perhaps the series' most downright legendary ass-kicking. Tiff proves she is more than capable of taking care of herself, be it flipping caddish athletes, escaping snipers with dart guns, snatching shady house mothers from behind or kicking gun-wielding hitmen in the face. As with nearly every solo hour, the other Angels show up just as she's done beating up the bad guys by herself.

Angels on Campus is easily Tiffany's shining action moment - in fact, her five separate beatdowns mark the highest such achievement of any Angel in a single episode.

FASHION

Tiffany ditches her typical poof for a much more flattering and less frizzy 'do, thus confirming our belief that Tiffany's usefulness is directly linked to the frizziness of her hair. If Tiff's hair is flat and long, she will be as strong and effective as any Angel, but if her hair is poofy and frizzy she will fade into the background offering exposition lines to the others.

As expected, her wardrobe is stylish and classy throughout, and she even managed to look sorta chic in her t-shirt-and-jeans volleyball ensemble. Tiff brings sexy back in her terry cloth towel, lookin' finer here than in any bathing suit. Everyone else is in their Season 4 dowdy schoolmarm phase with the sole exception of the initial office scene.

Wardrobe Repeats
Kris is channeling Sabrina by wearing her purple turtleneck from Angels on Skates again.

Angels on Campus

Angels on Skates

COVER, SCHMOVER

Bosley's under cover (from whom? - nobody knows who he is) as a charming and ambiguously western '51 alum, author and former insurance salesman. Lacking the accent, this isn't quite Bosley's standard Loud Texan cover personality, such as seen in The Vegas Connection, even though he's similarly costumed. What's interesting to note is, this makes Bosley's age at this time 50 years old - the same as David Doyle.

HERE'S TO BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

Strange the way Charlie, before they even begin to investigate, seems to already know that they're dealing with white slavery and introduces the case as such, even to the point of batting away Kris and Kelly's skepticism. Girls get kidnapped daily in the Angelverse - always beautiful ones, and usually in pairs, so that the Angels can take over their jobs - so why is he adamant that it's white slavery this time? Almost sounds like he knows ... too much. That piece of the puzzle could have been something the Angels figured out for themselves; heaven knows Kelly and Kris could have used something to do.

Listen to the way Bosley informs Tiffany that two beautiful girls were kidnapped from that other college campus. Do police reports specify that? ("Special Bulletin: Two ugly girls have been reported missing today.")

DIALOGUE, EH?

Even though she gets all the attention here, Tiff still doesn't get much more content than usual. Half of her lines are empty rhetorical blips that do absolutely nothing to further the conversation. "Do you really." "I'll bet." "You do, do you?" "Ah!" "(Repeat last line), eh?" Shelley Hack read all these lines with a heavy dose of sass, because if you don't, it's absolutely nothing. She only really had a few lines worth speaking in the whole hour - the rest was either pleasantries made tolerable by Shelley's natural refinement, or this weird filler-sass. Couldn't they give her some more real things to say in her starring episode, please?

SCREEN TIME ANALYSIS

With roughly 5x the other Angels' screen time, this is Tiffany's, as well as the entire series', soloest episode (that is, most unbalanced in terms of screen time per Angel).

Kris and Kelly seem to be working different cases in separate episodes. Not only is this an extreme solo for Tiffany, but these two are working solo from each other! Bosley is the only go-between; no two Angels appear together at all between the intro and the wrap-up. Furthermore, with 5 and 7 minutes respectively, Kelly and Kris each set records here for their least amount of screen time in any episode. (Consult our article on screen time to see how this measures up.)

JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT

This episode really tells you a lot of things instead of making any effort to show you. Various characters keep talking about how bright and resourceful Tiffany is - and with sophisticated Shelley Hack at the helm, you're not inclined to question it - but what does she really do here that's smarter than anyone else? Not scream when the lights go out? Then all the Kappa sisters keep swooning over Tiff and her landmark presidency, yet we're never given any idea why. No one says a single specific word about anything she did as president. What could she have done that was so legendary that all these girls, years later, are treating her like a celebrity? Darned if we'll ever know.

Everybody keeps saying how Professor Fairgate is captivating and handsome, but is he? Sure, Gary Collins would probably be the best-looking professor at your school, but it's a bit much the way he has this whole campus bedeviled. We never saw him exhibit any particularly charming behavior. Nope, just keep repeating character traits and hope nobody notices they're not reflected at all in the writing!

THE RODNEY DANGERFIELD OF ANGELS

Tiffany, who usually gets the least amount of attention and action, is in almost every scene, wins every fight she is in, and pretty much takes down the bad guys single-handedly. If this had been shown right after her debut instead of at the stale halfway point of the season, Tiffany may had survived to fight crime again in Season 5. Shelley Hack was robbed!

Even in an episode where she is front and center, Tiffany still gets comments directed at her that would never befall the other Angels past or present. House sister Lori indicates that the Kappas used to be known for beautiful girls until “Tiffany got us going in a different direction,” and Tiffany is sitting right there like “Um...thank you?” Later she gets called too old-looking to be in a sorority, which sounded ridiculous coming from a middle-aged looking "college boy". Bosley and Kelly can't muster much concern in their voices once they realize she's been kidnapped, and no one bothers to ask if she's okay after the takedown.

In the wrap-up Kelly even jokes, "I think Tiffany would've looked great behind a harem veil!" In other words, she'd look good with most of her face covered up. Rude. But worse - to recap, this episode was about girls getting drugged and kidnapped into human trafficking/sexual slavery. It's meant to be a light-hearted joke, but is actually grossly insensitive. Kelly seems to be equating Tiff's narrowly avoided life of forced prostitution to that time she wore a cute belly-dancing costume in Angels on Ice. No respect.

To top it off, if you're watching from the Sony DVD set, somebody has searched through this episode which is 99.9999% about Tiffany and selected one of Kris' scant few frames of film as its selection menu thumbnail. Sigh.

THIS COLLEGE MUST BE REALLY HARD

Half the “students” at Tiffany's former school appear to be in their mid-30's to early 40's. You must need hella credits to graduate. This seals the case on Tiff being the smart Angel after all. The mustachioed boyfriend says he's been in college since the 60's? This was filmed on the cusp of 1980. He literally has to be 40ish. Despite their AARP memberships, these college kids sure are immature, including in such 7th grade fare as fire crackers, toilet papering, and grudge match volleyball games.

VACANT STARE

Ok, it's not so much a stare but more of an attitude. Even in her few minutes of involvement, Kelly seems mentally checked out. Listen to how she says “I don't like the sound of that,” upon hearing Tiffany is missing, and you decide if she really gives a crap. Bosley seems similarly unconcerned with Ms Welles' fate - listen to how he says "I hope nothing,” when one of the sorority sisters asked what has happened to Tiff.

DRUGS DESTROY DREAMS

Charlie says that Jennifer is the second girl to disappear in two weeks. So those girls are being kept on those twin motel beds for somewhere around 1 and 3 weeks, respectively. Their hair and makeup looks as fresh as the day they were kidnapped. Were they kept drugged and asleep the whole time? If so, shouldn't they have died of dehydration/malnourishment? What happens when they have to go to the bathroom?

Did they only half-ass drug Tiffany? Otherwise, how'd she wake up and break free? If she was drugged, why were her hands also tied? Was she relegated to the chair because the beds were already occupied? The other girls weren't restrained at all. Did they tie her down because they thought she was too smart for the drugs to work? Good thing they did a horrible job and used that huge nautical-sized rope. Seriously, was there even a knot? It just sorta fell off when she moved her hands.

Don Chaffey also directed Mother Angel, Angels on Skis, Angels on the Street, Angels on Skates, Harrigan's Angel, Nips and Tucks, Island Angels, He Married An Angel, and Mr. Galaxy.

OUR TAKE

Greg's Rating: The old white slavery ring kidnapping co-ed's works here about as well as it would work anywhere else. Even for a 70's detective show you really have to suspend your belief in order to accept the fact that Fairgate would be able to operate his underground slave trade operation right under the noses of authorities and campus personable alike, especially considering he has a reputation for dating his female students. Tiffany being front and center and Shelley Hack handling the starring role with such grace and skill helped distract from the fact that the plot was so thin. Tiffany's best episode by far and a season 4 standout.

Anna's Rating: Ah, Tiffany's right at home in her ivy-covered halls of academia. This episode definitely betters her character, as she scores a huge portion of her total lifetime points here. Not much thanks to the script - it's just a chance for Shelley to shine using nothing more than her inherent poise and likeability. It's a real shame they didn't give her this much attention as a debut. I feel bad to give this a low rating since it's her big moment, but I personally find the episode as a whole pretty boring. I'm all about the Angel interaction, and this has zilch, not to mention the others are hardly in it/sleepwalking. In all the times I've watched this episode, I've never failed to laugh at Kelly bursting in with her gun after Tiffany has already owned the bad guys herself.

For a long time I thought all the sheikh and harem talk was just cutesy banter, but upon closer inspection, I guess there is an actual, literal sheikh behind all this. Maybe I need to brush up on my white slavery stats, but wouldn't it be a lot easier for the sheikh to kidnap from his own country than to have people trafficked across the globe? This seems like a lot of trouble and expense just for a few random harem girls. This show is always looking for an excuse to break out their cartoon stereotype Arab characters - why weren't there any here?

Holly's Rating: The crux of this episode seems to be that every female at the university is falling over Dr. Fairgate. But why?? I'd love some fan votes on whether Doctor/Professor/Mister Fairgate does anything for anyone. Anyone. Next, it's sad to note that in the old days, they used to reserve the all-the-way-from-the-car-to-the-door camera shots for long gazes at Jill or Kelly's backsides. This empty episode allows a full :30 seconds for a long shot of Bosley driving, parking, exiting his car and walking to the school.

Another favorite moment: Tiff's shower scene. Watch the two girls she's chatting with leave the scene - one seems to get stuck on a door and the other one has to give her a pull to exit the scene. I had this walking robot thing as a kid that did that all the time. You'd let it go and later find it endlessly marching with its face lodged in your bedroom wall, batteries draining.

It wasn’t said that Tiffany took the sorority in a “different direction” it was a “more balanced direction”. Meaning she was one of the beauties which is why she was accepted into the sorority, but Ms. Welles is more than just looks, so when she became president she took the sorority in a direction that helped them be known as more than just the pretty girls…This would be why hers was a landmark presidency and why Tiff is so popular.
And Steve didn’t call Tiff old. He was hitting on her and said that he preferred older women…which Tiff would be to college students. It doesn’t mean that she is or that Steve called her old.

Blackshear

Steve did call Tiff old. She even flipped his ass when he got touchy feely. The “It’s ok I like older women” was also a burn. What man says that to a woman “I like older women’ when he looks to be at least as old as she. Just something I can’t ever see a charatcer saying to Jill unless said character was 9. Anytime u comment on a female being old…it’s an insult at worst at best it’s horrible “game”

The “Balanced” comment could indeed be inturpreted the way you said. But also in fun it could be taken the way the review was written which is also a sort of burn. Those types of situations, the intentional and unintententiol that we find in all these old eps are what’s fun about these reviews.

I noticed another technical ‘curiosity’ in the volleyball game scene when Tiff drops the jock dude to the ground… he’s lying on the ground as the crowd is laughing and if you listen, you can faintly hear Shelley Hack say the ‘I like men, not boys’ line. Then the camera goes to a full face shot of Tiff and she says the line to the camera. Anyone else notice that?

Blackshear

good ear! Now I gotta so see what u are talking about.

Gharpo34

i like dthis episode a lot, shelly was great

xman

If you watch this episode closely, you might assume that this is “whitey college” as almost everyone appears to be white. I really hope that college campuses in the late 1970s were more racially diverse than this!

Seriously, if you got a bunch of college guys in the room for a drinking game and told them they could only drink when they saw a non-white on screen they would be downright angry in about 20 minutes. Tiffany’s sorority has one African American young woman, but all the people in class are white, and even every player on the football team appears to be white. The exception is the volleyball scene where plenty of younger African Americans are able to appear on screen. The only downside is that the African American sorority member appears to have changed drastically since we last saw her–he short straight hair is now longer and frizzy!

Like everyone else, I enjoyed Tiffany in this episode quite a bit and have to agree that it should have appeared early in the season to establish Tiffany as a capable angel. I had a hard time believing that current day students knew about her since I knew almost nothing about college students that graduated before I arrived in school and just can’t believe that Tiffany is playing a 22 year old student.

But all in all, a decent episode for season four.

Anthonyddeutsch

I love that high kick to Fairgates chops, bet he was spitting his teeth out. Those incredibly long legs and those charlie girl strides was put to good use. Another instance where the producers could have put this signature move to more use more frequently to give our posh princess a little more edge in defining this character.Who the hell needs a angel chop when one kick to face ends it all for Tiff. Well done miss Welles,Julie Rogers approves.

Jswan7088

One other curiosity… What is the reason for the extended shot of Tiffani looking thru the blinds of her bedroom at the pool/fountain, with ominous music cutting in??? I’ve seen this episode many times and just can’t come up with a reason… Red Herring I guess

Larry Hamblin

This is my first comment ever. My comment is that Steve Fitzpatrick couldn’t be a suspect to the kidnappings because the coeds were taken way before Kappa House rejected his sister Nikki.

Also, I assuming Whitley College is on the east coast since that is where Tiffany is from. I guess that’s why there aren’t any “back at the office” scenes in this episode. Also Professor Fairgate gets paid a great deal to spread his “accumulative wisdom” all over the place. I guess his career, fame and salary wasn’t fulfilling enough.

And then there’s Ms. Kay. Or should I Miss Kay. She’s not exactly a strong minded woman. I wish Kelly could have had a talk with her. She would have told her, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you about men Ms. Kay. They’ll do it to you every time (Angels on Wheels).

For a teenage boy in a small town in Oklahoma, in the 70s with no money, no cable TV, no DVDs or much of anything Charlie’s Angels was the greatest. I love the show so much and will always enjoy watching it. Thank you David, Jaclyn, Kate, Farrah, Cheryl, Shelley and Tanya.

Anthonydeutsch

besides spreading his accumalitive wisdom all over the place he also wanted to spread his seed to prety young girls before he sells them to this shiek who apparantly has a thing for white blonde, blue eyed young girls.

Anthonydeutsch

Finally a long over due back story about who this Tiffany is and what smarts and resources she brings to the table. Thanks to new guest writer Michael Michelian who unlike Ed Lakso has no intentional writer block and fleshes this character out nicely and guess what, she carries the entire 60 minute episode with out boring the audience to death. Bosley had good chemistry with Tiff also, so I don’t know why Goldberg to this day says there was no chemistry between them. Something goldberg didn’t learn is that your first impression is lasting one and that what was experienced when angels first burst on the scene couldn’t be captured in the exact same way, each set of characters is and was unique and that is what strenghs you play off. If this episode had been aired directly after loveboat angels the results of the season would have been much different, not that they were all that bad to begin with.Shelly Hack was cool chick in this belated episode and Michelian should have been allowed to write more stories about the adventures of Tiffany Welles, I never get bored watching Tiff because she seems to have a sense of wide eyed wonder about her and I never know what she is going to do, interesting and un-predictable character unlike Julie Rogers.

Suzy Su

this is probably my favorite episode with tiffany, being as how she actually did stuff! the writing was completey unfairr to her we musst admit, but she also didnt act in a way that drew attention to her. shes always flat and half the time u cant even hear what shes saying, but in this episode she was pretty good!

Anthonydeutsch

Hi Suzy,we must remember that a production set is not a loosey goosey free for all and that there is a director telling these actors everything they want them to say and do and how. And in this case with Shelley as an actor on this set you must always remember that Lakso was the on set production producer who over rides all and it is well documented his dislike and ill intensions for this particular actress and her character, the only attention he ever wanted drawn to her was in negative and foolish ways. One of my favorites too.

Anthonydeutsch

this episode was written by new guest writer Michael Michalian who was tasked with the difficult job of creating a backstory for Tiff, which was somethind Lakso refused to do and he and his minions staff faked writers block This was ordered by ABC not s/g. reality was ABC was the big boss and they paid the bills, s/g actually worked for them. This was a case of employer taking matters , a pro-active stance to try and salvage this season because Lakso surely wasn’t. It was a season of contempt and hate with the contruction of walls of animosity by Lakso and s /g.I take my hat off to Michalian for tackling this diffucult task and tearing down thi wall of hate and developing a friendhip and level of trut with Shelley, this was something new to her on this set wich she hadn’t experienced with Lakso. Yhe big quetion for michlian would be if he could get it all in in a 60 min episode, o some thing may appear to be crammed and un balanced with the other, only way to do it was with implimenting almot a whole season of screen time with some dialouge in 60 min.By Lakso not doing his job it would have a rippling effect.It i apparant no doubt it Shelley can indeed act.Michalian had few creative problem writing for Shelley and this new trio. Inpite of this major accomplishment s/g screwed it up by airing it out of sequence it should of aired directly after loveboat angels which we have to wonder what Tiffany’s real introduction would have been like if the story and script had been turned over to him to write, direct, and produce. Much appreciation to Michalian for a job well done epecially considering the odds and task at hand of gaining character profile to save a sinking hip in a 60 min episode. Thank you and well done

Anthonydeutsch

This episode was the first real attempt at introducing and developing Tiffany as a character trying to gain her some profile in order to help stabilize the decline in ratings. This task went to new guest writer Michael Michalian which proved to be a challenging task indeed. First thing he had to do was figure out who this actress and character were and what was the problem in the first place,once he knew what he was up against, he proceeded to tear down this wall of animosity, hate and distrust and dislike between actres and writer. Thee were no small odds to overcome considering Shelley wasn’t used to this kind of treatment on the set with Lakso. Michalian was totally professional writer and came to know,like, and repect Shelley and he certainly brought out a side in her and her character that we the audience had not seen as of yet. His biggest problem would not be the tory,script, or writing for her but rather trying to get a seasons worth of development in in a single sixty minute episode,there was no time for a gradual build up of development in a normal season because of Lakso’s sabotage and refusal to do much of anything for thi actress and her character. As fans we must remember this,he was trying to save a show which was getting stale and in rating decline ABC not s/g ordred the hiring of thee new writers and development of Tiff because ultimately they had been paying her for nothing thanks to Lakso. So if this episode appears to be un-balanced in relation to screen time among the group this was the reason why, and I think Michael Michalian did a tremendous job and makes me wonder what would Tiffany’ real introduction (loveboat angels) have been like if ABC had ordered thi asignment turned over to Michalian in the best interests of the show. I am willing to bet her introduction would have been quite different and Tiffany Welles would have been front and center.Unfortunetly noone knew at the time what Lako would be like and s/g were’t around much at all to over see their own production, talk about lazy.I really like all the adverity Michalian overcame in order to accomplish what he did.A winner was born and Lakso could have learned few things from all of this but no he till continued with hi hate and animosity.Thank you Michael Michalian for a job well done and giving us a smart, sweet,resourceful, and always beautiful Tiffany Welles. Now if only s/g would have been mart enough to aire thi as the econd epiode of season four, the audience would have connected with Tiff a lot sooner. Probably the biggest blunder of the season, in my opinion.

Anthonydeutsch

along with this being the first real attempt at giving Tiff some profile by the new guest writers it also was the first episode with the new hairstylist and make up artist and if you notice Tiff’s hair now seems relaxed, shiney and more straight, her make up appears to make her look younger especially under the eyes, in the intro when charlie is explaining the case to the girls and boz you can really see the new look and they made nolan miller start fitting her with less of a baggy look and she was beautiful.

Anthonydeutsch

Tiffany shows us she has the chops to be an angel

Anthonydeutsch

Tiffany showing her chops again, I loved getting to know her in this episode she was quite smart and resourceful as Miss Kay stated,her first episode featuring her and she carried the whole episode , Steve wasn’t expecting to be brought down by a woman, I think she earned his respect after that and he wanted to be friends, she was terrific and makes me wonder what if she was shown this kind of attention in her introduction episode, what would it have been like? Alot of Tiffany action i bet. After this episode Shelley Hack removed all doubt if she can act, not to easy to carry a whole hour long episode. The hard core proof is right here and only got better as the second half of the season went on.

lakso’s prayer goes like this: lord, send me an angel just make sure she is in a bikini and with nothing between her ears. a devil with thick eye makeup and a screechy voice was sent instead, wrapped in a bikini all right, but meant to drive the show straight to cancellation hell, and what an effective and efficient devil it was, too! accomplished the job right off the bat, in record time, with no hope to spare. heheee!!!

Anthonydeutsch

a human being always likes to revert to familiar ground and i never really realized the nature of the scripts good girl gone bad, and prostitutes, ect till you brought that to my attention, lakso was in complete control of all on set decisions, s/g i have read stated that they themselves stopped going to the sets because kate had made it unpleasant, so they had no control over what was going on, and as YOU said in another post that when Aaron told lakso to go a little easy with shelley on the diolouge he took it and went overboard taking away and diolouge and giving her token lines, proof is the single word PUNT on the boat in the premure episde, even allen baron was surprised and felt bad,another interesting investigation to look into

belenpakantot

we couldn’t say it enough so we’ll say again. shelley hack was great in this ep, showing once and for all that not only could she act but she was also leading lady material and the best choice there was for tiffany wells. backed up with a good enough story that showcased (finally!) her character, shelley definitely commanded attention and easily owned the stage, so to speak. tiff’s action-packed self-rescue was undoubtedly the best angel action in the whole series. tops that of julie holding on to the roof of a speeding car any time!

Anthonydeutsch

yup and letting her assets just about fall out,cheap thrill i guess, i’ll take the classy one any day all day and wouldn’t be ashamed to bring her home to meet mom, please check out the expressions on tiffs face especially when she decides to charge miss kay and use her as a bowling ball, then just before she flings the phone at the bad guy with the gun, it happens fast but it is a treat to see and sells the scenes, good actress, no doubt about it. It is embarrassing for s/g along with lakso to think that this is what the show needed, going through puberty only lasts for so long.

belenpakantot

that trip on the roof of a speeding car was an obvious set-up that did not turn out all that well for julie. fans could see through it, many in fact decided once and for all after watching that scene that they were done with the show. the character julie did not earn that scene. julie was a wimp (count her melodramatic and hysterical crying scenes, none of the other angels bawled like that) and a ditzy redhead basically there to jiggle her jangles in a bikini. nothing in the scenes prior to that made her look plucky, determined, tough. so in the end, that speeding car was like lakso ramming this poorly-thought-out angel into the fans’ throat, thinking they would be dazzled by her bikini bod and sudden/instant detective skills and physical prowess. well, think again!!! kelly and kris’ unenthusiastic response to charlie’s announcement that julie had been hired as a detective was a definite acknowledgement that death visited the show, and visited it on the premiere ep of the dreadful 5th season.

Anthonydeutsch

watch that word ditzy, i got ripped for using it like i invented it, i’m going to cut tanya/julie a little slack, yes i thought she was terrible but i also think it goes to show that ed lakso himself was a tired writer fresh out of ideas and probably needed a break, kate herself kinda thought so also, but the new guest writers brought on in season four to build up tiff which they did a great job at in my opinion, these chaps weren’t tired or burnt out and they couldn’t do much with this set of angels, i read a part of lakso’s bio and he said he was fired in season five, i don’t know what the problem was but he also said he didn’t really care and that he had set himself up for life and would never have to write again, exactly what that means is anyones guess,i’m not sure but maybe he was an ill man, i think he suffered from parkinson’s disease maybe he should have stepped down,maybe s/g knew all this and were trying to be loyal, i don’t know and neither do the so called experts and that includes some of these writers here, we wern’t there or in anybodys head, like i have said fasinating and to me people like us and others always digging and sharing makes this great series live on and these are our episodes, sounds stupid i know

Greg Jurick Blackshear

Nobody “ripped” you for using the word ditzy dude. Give me a break. I simply responded to your comments about Tanya Roberts particularly you saying and I quote ” I couldn’t and didn’t ever even look at any of her soft porn claim to fame movies nor have i ever viewed her grasping for straws to get some attention nude layouts in playboy” I felt that was a bit unfair to assume you knew why this actress made any decision she made.Charlies most famous angel posed for Playboy as well Please feel free to use the word ditzy, the words fuck, shit any word you choose. This is free speech zone however that goes both ways. I was pointing out that you spend an incredible amount of characters and paragraphs specifically dogging not the character of Julie but the actress of Tanya Roberts out and I feel as one of the creators and chief writers of this site to defend the actress. We didn’t create this place to bash the stars. I would defend Shelley and Farrah and all the others just the same. Thanks for your comments and this is not a personal attack.Just a honest response.

belenpakantot

oh, dear! thanks for the reminder. i might have been guilty of this a few times myself. but as i’ve said before, i liked tanya in beast master and thought she was good enough on the proposed vegas spinoff. (in fact, it might have turned out better if they had simply transplanted that character in the failed backdoor pilot to charlie’s angels.) i found her quite disappointing on angels, given the hype about her being better and sexier than the last angel. of course, that would be due to a number of factors like how the character was conceived, the writing, etc. if i have hinted or mentioned tanya’s soft-porn background, i did so mainly to question the motives of the producers for casting tanya. (imho she was wrong for the role, which i thought was ill-conceived in the first place.). if i have overstepped this, everyone, please feel free to comment

Greg Jurick Blackshear

It’s fine to discuss every aspect of the show and actors involved. If someone seems to take up an inordinate amount of space or time dissing a particular actress I feel compelled to offer up my 2 cents. Bashing the character of Julie is a bit different than judging the career of Tanya Roberts. Again..post what you want free speech and all just know it will be responded to with the same regard as the original post. Thanks for your response.

Kadavid

Who was the Sheik? didn’t anyone think of dealing with him? making sure he kept his kaften tied down ?